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This pistol was made by the company that was originally known as Para-Ordnance. They are now in the U.S. under the name of Para-USA. Unlike their usual double stack high capacity 1911 styled pistols with the wide frames this pistol is a very close clone of the original Colt 1911. It uses 1911 single stack magazines and a non-ramped 1911 barrel. They first called it the "GI Expert" but starting around January 2013 they dropped the "GI" part of the name and now they just call it "Expert". At the same time as the name change they upgraded the front sight, added a wider beavertail safety, changed the trigger, and gave it a more durable nitride finish. The original GI Expert version had a stainless steel receiver and slide but the new nitride finished Expert model only has the slide made of stainless (unless you buy the shiny polished stainless steel version, then you get a stainless receiver too). The manual that came with the Expert I bought didn't list it as it still was making references to the older GI Expert version. The only thing I've changed (at the time of the photos) are the grips. I removed the black plastic grips that came stock and installed a set of Pachmayr 1911 Rosewood Grips with the rubber finger grooves. I've used Pachmayr grips for years on revolvers and have become a big fan of them. Future plans for this pistol include a MechTech CCU upper in 9x25 Dillon and a 9mm/38Super slide with a 7.62x25 Tokarev barrel.

What impressed me the most with this pistol is that it was within a few bucks of the EAA import below, yet it was built here in the good old U.S. of A. And even though it's a budget priced 1911 clone it's still strong enough to meet approval for being upgraded to .460 Rowland. And with a price tag that's only a hair over $500 it's a Win-Win no matter how you look at it.

One last thing I would like to mention. I want to give a big shout out to a gent that goes by the user name of Travis Tomasie over on the Para-USA section of the 1911Forum. When I was stationed in the interior of Alaska in the early to mid 90's while I was in the Air Force I bought a Para-Ordnance P14-45. Unfortunately I was forced to sell it a few years later when my wife joined the Air Force and her income took a big hit for a while. So I'm very familiar with how they may be based on a 1911 they share very few parts with them. So when I went looking for a 1911 based pistol for use with a non-ramped barrel some of the hits I got in response to my searches mentioned the GI Expert. This didn't make sense to me as the Para 1911 like pistols I knew of used a special ramped barrel that was not interchangable with the standard 1911 barrel. So why was I seeing references to a Para GI Expert? The more I looked in to this perticular gun the more I kept coming across posts by Travis on the 1911Forum as a representative of Para-USA, and in the process I found out that the GI Expert was the closest I've ever seen a Para based pistol get to being a 1911 clone. Plus it didn't take me long to see that this guy knew what customer service was all about. Because of his posts I decided to go back to the gun counter at the local base exchange and check out what I thought was a GI Expert that I had seen in the display case a few days prior. But when the sales clerk pulled the pistol out of the display case I was surprised to see it was the Expert version (did not say "GI" on the slide). The reason for my surprise was it had a trigger that looked more like the one they used in the GI Expert and not the type that I had seen in pictures of the newer Expert model. Yet it had the better front sight of the Expert. Later on I found out that they (Para-USA) had recently switch the trigger of the Expert over to a 3 hole aluminum trigger (found that out via another informative posting by Travis on the 1911Forum). Anyhow, when I checked it out I was impressed with what I saw and at a pretty good price to boot. But what pushed me over the edge and sealed the deal was Travis and the example of great service he was setting on behalf of Para-USA. Thank you Travis. I am happy to have added the gun pictured below to my collection and it was mostly due to your outstanding level of service as a Para-USA representative.

This pistol was made by a company in Italy for a Florida based firearms importer called EAA (European American Amory). Years ago they used to have two different sized frames, a small frame for 9mm and a larger frame for .40S&W and .45ACP. But somewhere around 2005 they dropped the small frame and switched to a common large frame for both the 9mm and .40S&W/.45ACP pistols. Initially I was going to buy two Witness pistols, one in 9mm (so I could convert it for 38Super/9x23/7.62x25 Tokarev) and one in .40S&W (for conversion to .357Sig/9x25Dillon/10mm). But after doing some internet searches I could not find anyone making Tokarev barrels for the Witness pistols. So I dropped the 9mm Witness and replaced it with the Para-USA Expert above. If the gun looks dirty in the pics thats because it looks like they test fired it at the factory and didn't clean it too well. In other words the pics show the gun as it came out of the box as I have yet to take it to the range and fire it, and I've even wiped off some of the dirt from the slide. At least when I pulled the Para-USA Expert above out of it's box it was clean as can be. But EAA does have one thing going for it, they sell a wide range of conversion kits for the Witness. If you have a 9mm Witness and want a 10mm slide and barrel combo all you have to do is give them a call and order one. Want to change to a 6 inch slide? No problem there either. And from what I've seen of their prices their price for the conversion sets ain't half bad either. The catch is they have to rely on the Italian manufacturer to come up with the parts. So EAA is at their mercy and it could take a couple of weeks or a couple of months to get the parts. Overall it's still a nice high capacity pistol that allows for easy changing from one cartridge to another. If only EAA would understand why someone would want to order a 10mm slide with a 9mm barrel (in order to be chambered for 9x25 Dillon, a 10mm case necked down to a 9mm bullet) then they would be a perfect company to deal with (at least in my eyes anyhow, YMMV).

There is one wierd thing I've noticed with this pistol. If the slide is pulled back and locked open I have no problem inserting a magazine and having it lock in to place with very little pressure. But if the slide is closed the magazine will not lock in to place unless I smack it pretty hard or wiggle it when it gets all the way up in to the magwel. It doesn't matter if the mag is loaded or empty, it will not lock in to place without some help if the slide is closed. When I picked up the pistol I also bought a factory 38 Super mag and it also has the same problem. But if I remove the follower from the mag it will lock in to place just fine, even if the slide is closed.

This lever action pistol was made by Taurus in Brazil for import under the Rossi label. It is a clone of the Winchester 1892 lever action rifles. I've owned a Winchester 94AE (1894-1994 version) lever action rifle in .44 Magnum and thought it would be neat to get a pistol version with the intent of seeing if I could rechamber it for a certain wildcat cartridge. So I started researching Winchester lever actions and from what I came across it sounded like current Winchester lever actions aren't made in the states any more. Also came across some comments of how the 1892 series had a stronger locking mechanism than the 1894 version. While Rossi lever actions weren't my first choice I thought I would give them a try, especially when I found out they were 1/3rd to 1/2 the price of a Winchester version. The downside to them is they have a history of being hit or miss on the smoothness of their actions (some work great while others won't feed ammo worth a darn and need work to function reliably). In other words you get what you pay for. The good news is there are at least a couple of gunsmiths up north that specialize in fine tuning Rossi lever actions and making them work the way they were intended to. And their fee for the service is pretty reasonable too. Even with the cost of having a Rossi fine tuned you still come out cheaper than buying a Winchester (that's also imported in to the U.S.). Before putting live ammo in my Rossi RH92 I bought a couple packs of A-Zoom .357 Magnum snap caps and tried it out that way first in order to test it for problems. In the process I did find a problem with it. The portion that guides the rimmed end of the cartridge up to chamber level has too much of a square edge and is causing the cartridge to hang up as I'm trying to close the slide and chamber a new round. But even with this problem it's still a really nice pistol overall and I am still happy with the purchase.